Morning journal and courier., 1887-12-07


Os9 persons employed in such manufactur
ing interests as are claimed to be benefited
by high tariff.
HOW THE TARIFF WORKS.
To these the appeal is made to save their
employment and maintain their wages by
resisting change. There should be no dis
position to answer such suggestions by the
allegations that they are in minority among
those who labor, and therefore should forego
advantage in the interest of low prices for
the majority; their compensation, as it may
be affected by the operation of tariff laws,
should at all times be scrupulously kept IN
view, and yet with slight reflection they will
not overlook the fact that they are con-
sumers with the rest; that they, too, have
their own wants and those of their families
to supply from their earnings and that the
price of the necessaries of life, as well as the
amount of their wages will regulate the
measure of their welfare and comfort.
But the reduction of taxation demanded
should be 80 measured as not to necessitate
or justify either the loss of employment by
the workingmen nor the 1essening of his
wages; and the profits still remaining to the
| manufacturer after necessary REIMBURSEMENT
should furnish no excuse for the sacrifice of
the interests of his employees, either in their
opportunity to work or in the diminution OF
| their compensation. Nor can the workers in
manufactures fail to understand that while
| high tariff is claimed to be necessary to allow
the payment of the remuneratiye wages it
| certainly results in a very large increase in
| the price of nearly all sorts of manufactures,
| which, in almost countless forms, he needs
| for the use of himself and his family. He
receives at the desk of his employer his
wages and perhaps before he reaches his
home is obliged, in purchase for family
use of an article which embraces his own
labor, to return in the payment of the in
crease in price which the tariff permits, the
hard earned compensation of many days of
toll.
The farmer and agriculturist who manu-
features nothing butwho pays the increased
price the tariff imposes upon every agricul-
tural implement, upon all he wears and upon
all he uses and owns, except the increase of
his f1ocks and herds and such things as his
husbandry produces from the soil, is invited
to aid in maintaining the present situation,
and he is told that high duty on imported
wool is necessary for the benefit OF those who
have sheep to shear in order that the price OF
their wool may be increased. They of course
are not reminded that the farmer who has no
sheep is by this scheme obliged in his pur-
chases of clothing and wooden goods to pay
tribute to his fellow farmer as we'll as to the
manufacturers and merchants; nor is any
mention made of the fact that the sheep own
ers themselves and their household must
wear clothing and use other articles manu-
featured from the wool they sell at tariff
prices, and thus consumers must return
their share of this increased price to the
tradesmen.
1 think it may be fairly assumed that q
large proportion of the sheep owned by the
farmers throughout the country are found in
small focks numbering from 90 to so. The
duty on the grade of imported wool which
the sheep yield is 10 cents each pound if of
the value of 80 cents or less, and IL cents if
of the value of more than 80 cents. If the
i
each fleece the duty thereon would be go or
72 cents, and this may be taken as the ut
most enhancement of the price of the farmer
by reason of this duty. Eighteen dollars
would thus represent the increased price of
the wool from 25 sheep and $36 that from
the wool of 90 sheep, and at present values
this addition would amount to about one
third of it's price. If upon its sale the farmer
receives this less tariff profit, the wool
leaves his hands charged with precisely that
SUM which in all its charges will adhere
to it until it reaches the consumer.
When made into cloth and other goods and
material for use, its cost is not only increased
to the extent of the farmers tariff profit, but
further SUM has been added for the benefit
of the manufactures on the operation of 9TH
or tariff laws. In the meantime the day ar
rives when the farmer fluids it necessary to
purchase wooden goods and material to
clothe himself and family for the winter.
When he faces the tradesmen for that pur-
pose he discovers that he is obliged not only
to return in the way of increased prices, his
tariff profit on the wool he sold, and which
then perhaps lies before him in manufactur-
ed form, but that he must add considera-
BILE sum thereto to meet further increase in
cost caused by tariff duty on the manufac-
ture. Thus in the end he is aroused to the
fact that he has paid upon a moderate pur-
chase as result of the tariff scheme which,
when he sold his wool seemed SO profitable,
increase in price more than sufficient to sweep
away all the tariff profit he receives upon
the wool he produced and sold. When the
number of farmers engaged in wool raising
is compared with all the farmers in the coun-
try and the small proportion they bear to our
population is considered, when it is made
apparent that in the case of large part of
those who own sheep, the benefit OF the pres
ent tariff on wool is illusory, and above all
when it must be conceded that the increase
of the cost of living caused by such tariff
becomes burden upon those with moderate
means and the poor, the employed and I'M
employed, the sick and well, and the young
and old, and that it constitutes tax which,
with relentless grasp, is fastened upon the
clothing of every man, woman and child in
the land, reasons are suggested why the re-
moval or reduction of this duty should be in
cluded in revision of our tariff laws.
THE TRUSTS"
In speaking OF the increased cost TO the
consumer of our home manufactures result
ing from duty laid upon imported articles
of the same description, the fact is not over
looked that competition among our domes-
tic producer sometimes has the effect of
keeping the price of their products below the
highest limit allowed by such duty. But it
is notorious that this competition is too
often stIangled by combinations quite preva-
lent at this time, and frequently called trusts,
which have for their object the regulation of
the supply and price of commodities made
and sold by members of the combination. The
people can hardly hope for any consideration
in the operation of these selfish schemes. If,
however, in the absence of such combination,
healthy and free competition reduces the
price of any particular dutiable article of
home production below the limit which it
might otherwise reach under our tariff laws,
and if, with such reduced price, its manu-
facture continues to thrive, it is entirely evi-
dent that one thing has been discovered which
should be carefully scrutinized in an effort to
reduce taxation
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